This article is about an evolutionary concept. For the ideology and movement, see Transhumanism. For the Believer album, see Transhuman (album). For a person identifying as male or as female, respectively, after having been socially and/or medically assigned the opposite sex identification at birth, see trans man and trans woman.

Transhuman or trans-human is an intermediary form between human and posthuman.[1] In other words, a transhuman is a being that resembles a human in most respects but who has powers and abilities beyond those of standard humans.[2] These abilities might include improved intelligence, awareness, strength, or durability. Transhumans sometimes appear in science-fiction as cyborgs or genetically-enhanced humans.

The use of the term "transhuman" goes back to French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who wrote in his 1949 book The Future of Mankind:

Liberty: that is to say, the chance offered to every man (by removing obstacles and placing the appropriate means at his disposal) of 'trans-humanizing' himself by developing his potentialities to the fullest extent.[3]

And in a 1951 unpublished revision of the same book:

In consequence one is the less disposed to reject as unscientific the idea that the critical point of planetary Reflection, the fruit of socialization, far from being a mere spark in the darkness, represents our passage, by Translation or dematerialization, to another sphere of the Universe: not an ending of the ultra-human but its accession to some sort of trans-humanity at the ultimate heart of things.[4]

In 1957 book New Bottles for New Wine, English evolutionary biologist Julian Huxley wrote:

The human species can, if it wishes, transcend itself not just sporadically, an individual here in one way, an individual there in another way, but in its entirety, as humanity. We need a name for this new belief. Perhaps transhumanism will serve: man remaining man, but transcending himself, by realizing new possibilities of and for his human nature. "I believe in transhumanism": once there are enough people who can truly say that, the human species will be on the threshold of a new kind of existence, as different from ours as ours is from that of Peking man. It will at last be consciously fulfilling its real destiny.[5]

One of the first professors of futurology, FM-2030, who taught "new concepts of the Human" at The New School of New York City in the 1960s, used "transhuman" as shorthand for "transitional human". Calling transhumans the "earliest manifestation of new evolutionary beings", FM argued that signs of transhumans included physical and mental augmentations including prostheses, reconstructive surgery, intensive use of telecommunications, a cosmopolitan outlook and a globetrotting lifestyle, androgyny, mediated reproduction (such as in vitro fertilisation), absence of religious beliefs, and a rejection of traditional family values.[6]

FM-2030 used the concept of transhuman as an evolutionary transition, outside the confines of academia, in his contributing final chapter to the 1972 anthology Woman, Year 2000.[7] In the same year, American cryonics pioneer Robert Ettinger contributed to conceptualization of "transhumanity" in his book Man into Superman.[8] In 1982, American Natasha Vita-More authored a statement titled Transhumanist Arts Statement and outlined what she perceived as an emerging transhuman culture.[9]

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Transhuman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"It's what you know (and believe) that saves your life - and so knowledge, figuratively speaking, is an 'ark', one that can keep you afloat when others without it are sinking in a deluge of perplexity. If you desire to arm yourself with knowledge, the kind that may save both you and possibly your children - I recommend reading: 'As The Days of Noah Were', by Minister Dante Fortson." - C. Heidt

"Interesting and well explained. Though this goes totally against all I was taught growing up it has given me allot to think about. There are so many places in scripture that just didn't make much sense to me. M.F.'s explanation does make these passages fit better." - Carol Motsinger

"Get this book, I could not put my kindle down. The book is well written and extremely well researched. Minister Fortson takes a subject, gives you a variety of angles from other texts than just the Bible and shows how they all seem to connect in very important ways and allows you the reader to find your own solutions." - J.K. White

"As a student of eschatology I must congratulate this author for a job well done! Very insightful, informative and interesting!!! One of the best books on the Great Flood and the Nephilim." - M. Torres

"This book is sure to challenge you, regardless of your previous research and beliefs about ufology, genetic hybrids, the Nephilim, end-times prophecy, or a host of other issues covered in this book. It is clear that Minister Fortson is passionate about this subject matter and has spent a great deal of time researching and forming his own beliefs. Whether you agree or disagree with his ultimate conclusions, this book is a must read for those interested in the topics mainstream media refuses to touch." - Andrew Hoffman

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Animal Human Hybrids , Transhumanism, and The Bible :The ...

February 10, 2015|9:03 am

In 2000, Craig Venter, along with Francis Collins, joined then-president Clinton in announcing the mapping of the human genome.

Since then, Venter has been a leader in the field of synthetic biology, a multi-disciplinary field related to genetic engineering.

And what he recently told the Wall Street Journal sent chills down my spine. Venter said, "We're going to have to learn to adapt to the concept that we are a software-driven species and understand how it affects our lives. Change the software, you can change the species, who we are."

The Journal's selected headline of the article described how we can now "control our evolution," which because evolution is supposed to be an unguided process, must be a misnomer. What Venter was actually describing would be better characterized as playing Creator to everyone else's Adam.

Humans, by the way, have quite a history of trying to reinvent our species. The Communists spoke about building the "New Soviet Man," a "selfless, learned, healthy and enthusiastic" person who would help build the Utopia described by Karl Marx. Fascism spoke of a "New Man who is a figure of action, violence, and masculinity," free from the taint of individualism.

Well, both failed, but not before causing previously unimaginable suffering.

Now it's scientism's turn to take a crack at reinventing the human species. And fittingly for a worldview that holds that empirical science is the only measure of truth, its approach is to reduce people to biological machines and see if they can produce something new by swapping parts and tinkering with the "software."

These efforts are known as "transhumanism." The goal of transhumanism is to "fundamentally [transform] the human condition by developing technologies to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities."

For a long time, transhumanism was thought to be a kind of fringe movement, the stuff of science fiction movies. But now you have Venter, who is as significant as it gets in the field of genetics, talking about "changing the software." Transhumanism is not fringe anymore: It's mainstream. In fact, just last week the British Parliament approved a procedure to create babies with genetic material from three different parents!

Read more here:

When Adam Plays God: Why Transhumanism Won't End Well

February 12, 2015|8:10 am

In 2000, Craig Venter, along with Francis Collins, joined then-president Clinton in announcing the mapping of the human genome.

Since then, Venter has been a leader in the field of synthetic biology, a multi-disciplinary field related to genetic engineering.

And what he recently told the Wall Street Journal sent chills down my spine. Venter said, "We're going to have to learn to adapt to the concept that we are a software-driven species and understand how it affects our lives. Change the software, you can change the species, who we are."

The Journal's selected headline of the article described how we can now "control our evolution," which because evolution is supposed to be an unguided process, must be a misnomer. What Venter was actually describing would be better characterized as playing Creator to everyone else's Adam.

Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/when-adam-plays-god-why-transhumanism-wont-end-well-133846/

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Are 'Transhumanists' Trying to Play God?

THE CHAIRMAN of the reform committee on the protection of Buddhism has said the purpose of his committee is to seek an answer on whether monks can spend money, so the matter can be regulated with sincerity.

"We are focusing on the case of Phra Dhammachayo, the abbot of Dhammakaya Temple, because there was a report indicating he has been involved with money matters, including the source of the money, that has been handled without transparency," Paiboon Nititawan told The Nation.

Paiboon, whose committee was set up earlier by the National Reform Council, sparked uproar when he said at a recent meeting of the committee that according to a 1999 statement by the then-Supreme Patriarch, Phra Dhammachayo had been automatically defrocked.

This created tension between the NRC panel, the monk and Buddhist groups.

Dhammakaya Temple is believed to be the wealthiest temple in Thailand, but some Buddhists view it as a temple that has distorted Lord Buddha's teachings in relation to money matters.

"Our goal is to protect religion by scrutinising the temple's budget or financial status, with Dhammakaya Temple the main case study we have to look into," Paiboon said.

He said the study's findings could result in the public realising what the real problems were and how they could be regulated.

He said that along with investigating whether monks could spend money, his panel wanted to determine if monks can collect money if they are allowed to spend it.

If they were, it needed to be determined how much they could collect and whether they had to declare assets like non-monks had to.

"All these questions have been frequently asked by many people, and if the monks can use and collect money do they have to pay taxes too? This is one of the important questions we have to search for facts [to reach a conclusion]," he said.

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NRC panel focused on monks and money

A LARGE number of monks have threatened to rally on March 12 in an attempt to have the National Reform Council panel on the protection of Buddhism disbanded due to its perceived hostility towards the order.

In a statement issued yesterday, Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University deputy rector Phra Maythee Thammajarn said his call for the rally was not meant to favour any particular temple but to protect Buddhism overall.

The NRC panel is chaired by Paiboon Nititawan, who has labelled Dhammakaya Temple the source of ongoing disputes and has said its abbot Phra Dhammachayo should be defrocked as a result of a 1999 statement by the late supreme patriarch.

Phra Maythee Thammajarn last week submitted a petition to Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha and NRC president Thienchay Kiranandana demanding that the NRC panel be scrapped.

"If the call to disband the NRC panel is disregarded by the government or the NRC, I can confirm that there will be more activities by various Buddhist bodies, especially by a large number of monks, on March 12," he said. The deadline has been set by the Association of Academics for Buddhism, a lay body that is an ally of Mahachula-longkornrajavidyalaya University. The location of the march has not yet been determined.

A group of followers of late revered monk Luang Ta Maha Bua on Friday submitted an open letter to Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha and NRC president Thienchay Kiranandana that said an ongoing draft on religions in the new constitution must clearly stipulate that it was the King's sole authority to appoint the supreme patriarch. They also said the seniority of monks should be based on the number of years they had been monks and not by their ecclesiastical rank.

Led by Prof Rattana Siriphanich, they are also opposed to any future issuance of a monastic law that is against the Buddha's rules on the discipline of monks, which they said could lead to divisions among monks - a deadly sin. The group said giving the King the authority to appoint the supreme patriarch could minimise or prevent the "money-driven chase" for a higher ecclesiastical rank among senior monks.

The late supreme patriarch said the abbot's monk status was invalidated after he allegedly committed one of the five deadly sins as a Buddhist monk by embezzling money and land donated to the Pathum Thani-based temple. Public prosecutors dropped the case.

Meanwhile, a National Institute of Development Administration poll found that 52 per cent of respondents said that reform of Buddhism in Thailand was urgent and important, 24 per cent said it was important but not urgent and 19 per cent said it was not needed. Of 1,249 Buddhist respondents across the country, 10 per cent viewed the Supreme Sangha Council's performance as being highly effective, 25 per cent said rather effective, 33 per cent said lowly effective and 19 per cent found it completely ineffective.

Asked about frequency of monk walks in Bangkok, which has drawn criticism due to their impact on traffic, 77 per cent said they were inappropriate, 13 per cent said they were appropriate and 3 per cent had no problems.

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Monks to rally if NRC panel is not scrapped